The song was the last Morissette wrote for the album. According to her, it is "about the gratitude that I feel for someone tapping into the courage that it takes to allow themselves to be loved and to ... listen to [their fears] and still move through them. And how thrilling it is for me to be able to be let in in that kind of way. And how healing it is ultimately for both the person I'm singing about and myself." She has described it as "a very peaceful, joyful song".[1] The subject of "Surrendering" is a man Morissette was dating as of March 2002.[2]

Entertainment Weekly cited the line "I embrace you for your faith in the face of adversarial forces that I represent" as an example of "some of the clumsiest lyrics to be heard on a pop record in years ... [it] may be an appropriate assessment of a relationship, but it's not a chorus."[3]The Village Voice named it the best song on Under Rug Swept, saying it shows Morissette's "gift for the all-time pop melody".[4]NME wrote that "Surrendering" and "Hands Clean", another track on the album, were "overwrought folk-rock [that is] destined for a thousand
organic juice bars."[5]